Tech volleyball wraps up tough road trip with five-set loss to Houston Baptist
Photo by Tim Smith
Louisiana Tech’s Faith Menary rises for a kill during a match at Louisina Tech recently. The Lady Techsters had a rough road trip to Fort Worth, Texas.
FORTH WORTH, Texas – The Louisiana Tech volleyball team drop five-set thriller to Houston Baptist to close out the Fight For The Fort Tournament here Friday.
The Huskies outlasted Tech by the score of 25-21, 15-25, 22-25, 25-10, 15-10.
Houston Baptist improved to 6-3 on the win, while the Lady Techsters drop to 4-6 overall.
Houston Baptist jumped out to an early 7-2 lead in the first set. After kills by sophomore Mackenzie Murray and senior Jordyn Carswell, the Huskies scored eight of the next 11 points extend their lead to 15-7.
The Lady Techsters would use a trio of blocks from sophomores Morgan Smith, Mallory Meers, Carswell and Murray to trim the lead to 17-14. Tech would cut the deficit down to two at 20-18 following a kill by Meers, but a block by a 3-0 run by the Huskies closed the door and gave Houston Baptist a 25-21 set win.
The Lady Techsters dominated set two, using a pair of 4-0 runs to surge out to a 10-4 lead. Back-to-back kills from sophomore Meghan Dunnigan and Carswell extend the Lady Techsters lead to 16-8. The Huskies would close to within 19-12, before a double-block from Murray and sophomore Carly Doros pushed the lead out to 22-12. A kill by Carswell gave Tech a 25-15 set win, evening the match up at 1-set apiece.
Tech held an early 3-2 lead, before Houston Baptist sparked a 5-1 to jump out to a 7-4 lead. A pair of kills by sophomore Faith Menary and a double-block by Smith and Murray highlighted a 4-1 run that gave Tech a 11-10 lead.
With the score knotted at 12-12, a trio of kills from Menary, Smith and Carswell extend the Lady Techsters lead to 16-13. A quick 4-1 run by the Huskies evened things up at 19-19, but kills by Murray and Doros gave the Lady Techsters a 22-20 advantage. Menary finished things off powering home a kill, give Tech a 25-22 set win and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Houston Baptist controlled the fourth set, collecting seven total blocks while hitting .364 with 10 kills claiming a 25-10 set win and evening the match at 2-2.
The Lady Techsters and Huskies traded points through the midway of the fifth set, before a 5-1 run put Houston Baptist out in front 13-9. The Huskies claimed the match with a 15-10 fifth set victory.
McKenzie Johnson collected a season-high 23 digs. Carswell led the Lady Techsters with 12 kills, while Menary finished the match with 10 kills and nine digs
“Today is so tough because I feel like the losses don’t reflect how hard our team battled. We went toe to toe with a very good, experienced UNF team who plays with a ton of Confidence, then lined up less than 30 minutes later to face another talented and well-rounded team in HBU,” Tech head coach Amber McCray said. “It’s heartbreaking to lose in 5 because I know we had chances to close this last one out, but this team essentially played 9 sets in a row and yet still played them all hard. We can build on that kind of heart, and we will as we bounce back in our final week of preseason.”
Tech will return to action on Tuesday when they travel to Monroe to battle the University of Louisiana-Monroe at 6:30 p.m.
